This was the first tutorial session I had with Hallam. I felt to begin the lesson with going over a number of learning gaps that had been passed onto myself by Hallam's dad, Paul, earlier in the week. First off the list was operations with whole numbers. Overall, I felt it was a really good first session with Hallam. His application and engagement with all the questions we attempted together from the content provided was very good. Hallam's enthusiasm, application and attitude throughout the whole session was really good to see. He really made the effort to understand everything we did and attempted. As we go forward, I feel it's necessary to take things slowly and look at each learning gap individually as per the list that was given to me by Paul. Hence, next session/lesson will be on fractions and decimals. I will also encourage Hallam to attempt the questions we didn't do in Exercise 3. I believe it will be good practice for him going forward.

As mentioned, it was a good first session. I feel as we move forward and address the further learning gaps Hallam has been shown to have, improvements in his understanding and learning of these topics will be observed gradually.

Short Summary of Last Thursday's Lesson (28/11/2024) with Ruby: For this lesson, Ruby and myself went through some practice test questions on Representing and Interpreting Data as she had a maths test the following day at school. I'm sure she did quite ok with this test. We went over a number of practice questions that covered concepts such as classifying data, e.g. qualitative vs. quantitative data, displaying data in tables, e.g. frequency tables and stem and leaf plots, measures of center and spread, e.g. mean, median, mode and comparing data graphically and from measures of spread. I really felt Ruby applied herself well during this lesson. There were also a few moments where she got specific questions wrong but I made a point of prompting her to think through her answers until she got them correct. I feel she demonstrated a good understanding of this topic as we wen through it. I hope she did well on her test last Friday. Learning Strategies demonstrated: Pen and Paper – this definitely was demonstrated during this lesson. Ruby made a good point of writing down every question we went through together and highlighted every answer that she felt was correct in this regard. I feel this strategy has slowly improved over the last few weeks with Ruby. It will get better as we go forward with our last lesson coming up, and into the new year hopefully, Talking Aloud – This strategy was also demonstrated quite ok during this lesson. Ruby made a good point of talking aloud the answers she felt was correct for each question we attempted together. There were a few moments during the lesson where she commented that she forgot certain concepts in relation to this topic but I made a point of explaining what they meant and she was able to apply it immediately to questions that highlighted such concepts. One question asked to find the mode of a given data set, Ruby commented she forgot what this was, I explained it to her and then she was able to find the corresponding answer. Memory Triggers – I felt this strategy had to be implemented a number of times during this lesson as Ruby kept commenting she had forgotten concepts in relation to this topic of statistics. Once she was reminded of what these concepts were, she applied them well to all the questions that required answers of them.

I feel Ruby has shown good improvement in her understanding and learning of maths over the last month or two. I would encourage Ruby to be consistent with this for next year as she moves into Year 8 Maths. Not to be lazy about this, but to make the effort to go over notes and problems undertaken in the classroom at school as a tool for her learning of maths going forward. There's nothing wrong doing this. I remember doing this when I was in high school and I quite excelled in maths. As I've said in previous posts, Ruby's got some excellent potential to be really good at maths next year, she just needs to apply herself a little bit more. Well done for last Thursday's lesson, Ruby.

Short Summary of Today's Lesson (21/11/2024) with Ruby: For today's lesson, we moved on from Chapter 9: Measurement to Chapter 14: Representing and Interpreting Data in the textbook Jacaranda Maths Quest 7, Australian Curriculum, 3rd Edition. For today's lesson, we mainly covered content and questions from section 14.6: Comparing Data. I felt it was a good idea to get straight in to this sections' exercise questions as it would get Ruby's mind focused on all the different concepts she had been taught at school today. The following questions are what we attempted together for this lesson: Q1 a): i) - iv), b): i) - iv) & c), Q2 a): i) - iv) & b), Q4 a): i) - iv), b): i) - iv), & c), Q5 a): i) - iv) & b), Q10 a) - c) and Q11 a) & b). As we went through each question, I made a point of asking Ruby what was each concept/variable was defined as with the question it was presented with and how it was to be calculated. Ruby was able to give a number of good definitions to these variables, e.g. mean, median, mode and range. And show how each was to be calculated. There were a few moments where she got confused with this but I managed to get her back on track with this subtopic. I feel Ruby displayed a very good understanding of this subtopic but I also feel there's good room for improvement going forward with this topic. Learning Strategies demonstrated: Pen and Paper – This strategy was very much on display during today's lesson. I feel Ruby applied this strategy quite well today. She made a good effort to write down all the questions we went through and showed good workings with each question highlighting how each of them was to be evaluated. I was very happy with how well she utilised this strategy. As I have mentioned previously, I wanted to see improvement with this strategy concenring Ruby. I feel this was done really well during today's lesson. Talking Aloud – This strategy was also very much on display during this afternoon's lesson. I made a point of encouraging Ruby to talk aloud each question we attempted together and talk her way through how each was to be evaluated. There were a few moments where she stated the wrong answer/s but I prompted here to keep talking through the question until she got the correct answer. I feel Ruby utilised this strategy quite well.

I feel Ruby's slowly but surely showing good signs, up to this point of time, of understanding and learning maths better. She's showed really good focus and engagement over the last few weeks as we've gone ahead with the lessons we have. She's consistently building upon everything that she's being taught and is encouraged to go over the content again to help it sink in better for her own understanding and learning. I did encourage Ruby to just go over the concepts of mean, median, mode and range again in any spare time she has as she commented she felt she was getting these concepts confused. Overall, it was another good lesson. Well done for today, Ruby.

Tutorial was planned for this afternoon but due to unforeseen circumstances, we had to cancel as Ruby wasn't herself due to circumstances that happened during the school day.

I believe Ruby's been showing excellent improvement over the last few weeks with her understanding and learning of maths. I believe this will continue to improve and built upon as we go forward with further lessons.